"Education" SOAPST

           In this article, Ralph Waldo Emerson explains the real education that students are receiving in schools. The Subject of "Education" is the education reformation and philosophical views. The Occasion is in the 1800s and it is published in the American Scholar. The Audience is the readers of the magazine, educators and also parents. The Purpose is to educate, to persuade and to reform. Emerson tries to reach out to teachers and parents by letting them know that students must be respected and must also learn independently. The Speaker is Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Tone of "Education" is philosophical, confident, professional and considerate. Emerson successfully appeals to the audience and makes sure that his point was clearly stated many times.
            As a young child begins school, they realize that they need assistance from their parents. With this help, children become dependent on their parents. The parent keeps on helping the child because they want them to see the child do excellent in school. By this process, the child begins to lose intellectual value and becomes dependent instead of independent. Emerson believes that the child should learn through the natural method. The child should learn through natural observation, where they observe and learn on their own to adapt to the situation.
             Natural observation was extremely important to Emerson because it proves that if the child learns on their own from their mistakes they will be more likely to survive in various environments. The child must learn on his or her own and they must find their own path in life. Children must be taught the fundamentals but let to succeed on their own. The child will soon love to learn if parents and educators let them. "The whole theory of the school is on the nurse's or mother's knee. The child is as hot to learn as the mother is to impart. There is mutual delight"(191). The child will love to learn if school is portrayed as a place to free one's mind.
              This article serves its purpose by spreading Emerson's message. The SOAPST for this article helps the reader receive a main background on the article and why Emerson believed in this method. Emerson persuades and educates the audience through pathos. He states that the child must live its own to life to realize the right from wrong and to grow as a person. Education is highly important, but it all matters on how it is portrayed.